2012 was the Year of Steam for me. And in my little corner of the factory floor, the year started off with a bit of a steam explosion, minus all the problems caused by flying bits of metal as usually accompanies such instances. I started the year with my first ever publication in its third month online, and nearly 30,000 words drafted for a Steampunk-ish novel. On top of that, I had the great pleasure—and I mean that with every ounce of sincerity I can muster—of being selected as the Managing Editor of Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders. I owe a lifelong debt of gratitude to executive editor and founder, Matthew Delman, for offering me the chance to help guide Doctor Fantastique’s on its course.
Through the year, I had the continued pleasure of working with some wonderful writers and fellow editors as we published columns, stories, articles, and reviews of all things Steampunk. I edited interviews, book reviews, convention reports, fashion and style reviews and tutorials, op-eds, and columns written by the staff. I learned volumes about the world of Steampunk, the literary background, the costuming community, the musicians and artists, the makers. And I learned what it means to be an editor, to sit at the helm and observe the ship’s progress all the while knowing that your decisions have the potential to significantly affect the direction of that progress, even to stop it dead.
For my part, I conducted interviews with musicians, built a weekly column to spread the word about crowd-sourced Steampunk projects, and did my best to keep up with the doings of Steampunks within the greater community. Again, I learned a great deal. About relationships between organizations, about politics between and among members, and about how simple it is to reach out and say hello to someone in this contemporary era. Keep it professional, and there is very little, indeed, that should prevent your communications from being received. Signal-to-noise ratio notwithstanding, everyone is reachable these days.
My family was not left out of the fun, either. We attended whimsical events and the inaugural Steamstock concert, and this year my wife and I are set to visit Clockwork Alchemy. 2013 will also be the year of my first ever print publication. My wife and I co-author a tale in the upcoming Mechanized Masterpieces, to be released by Xchyler Publishing on April 30th. We’re overjoyed to have our story in the anthology and can’t wait to read everyone else’s steamed-up expansions to the classics.
What sort of steamy doings have you been up to? Any exciting news you’d like to share?
Aaron Sikes, and his wife, Belinda, co-authored the short story “His Frozen Heart”, an expansion of The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in Mechanized Masterpieces: a Steampunk Anthology slated for release on April 30, 2013, by Xchyler Publishing.